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Assisted Suicide Laws:
Doctor Shopping is Real and Deadly

Medium shot of an older white woman sitting on a red and cream striped couch. A brown dachshund dog sits beside her looking out a window. The woman has white hair and glasses, wears a green shirt.

Kate Cheney

Kate Cheney, an 85-year-old dementia patient, requested assisted suicide drugs and was originally denied by her physician, but her daughter shopped for a doctor until one wrote the prescription. The second physician ordered a psychiatric evaluation which found that Kate was not competent to make the decision, so she was sent to yet another psychologist who deemed she was. The second psychologist noted the possibility of coercion by the daughter, but Kate received the prescription regardless and died. In 2009, a leading proponent organization facilitates 57 of the 59 assisted suicide deaths in Oregon.*

 

*Stevens, Concentration of Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Prescriptions & Deaths from a small number of Prescribing Physicians.

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